Newsletter

UPDATE & PHOTOS: Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps dead

1989 FILE PHOTO/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Fred W. Phelps Sr. announced his plans to run for the Democratic nomination for governor of Kansas. Phelps' seven points of reform were listed on a board beside him.

About 7 p.m. Wednesday, angry adult voices, including some cursing, could be heard in the vicinity of the church and homes of Westboro Baptist Church members. Many WBC members live on adjacent streets within sight of the church. The dispute outside didn't last long.

Phelps-Roper politely said it was "none of your business" to a reporter's questions of whether members of Phelps' family had been present when he died and whether a funeral service would be conducted for her father.

Phelps family members who have left Westboro Baptist Church weren't allowed to visit the ill Phelps while he was in hospice care, according to former church members. Of the 13 adult children of Fred Phelps Sr., four have split from the church as well as approximately 20 adult grandchildren of Phelps.

"There will not be a funeral," Margie Jean Phelps, the oldest daughter of Fred Phelps Sr., later said during an interview with WIBW 580 AM. "The funeral (in general) has become the number one idol of Americans.

The church is well known for picketing the funerals of American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Fred Phelps Sr. said was tied to American attitudes about gays. The WBC picketing of a Marine's funeral spurred a lawsuit culminating in a legal battle before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Her father's "message and life was to fear and obey God," Margie Phelps said. "Nothing else matters." Society is doomed if it doesn't turn away from same-sex marriage and sodomy, she said.

"The world-wide media has been has been in a frenzy during the last few days, gleefully anticipating the death of Fred Waldron Phelps Sr.," an unsigned statement issued by the church said. "It has been an unprecedented, hypocritical, vitriolic explosion of words.

"Do they vainly hope for the death of his body? People die – that is the way of all flesh," the church said. "The death of Fred Phelps’ body, a man who preached a plain faithful doctrine to an ever darkening world, is nothing but a vain, empty, hypocritical hope for you."

The church statement added it hasn't undergone any power struggles.

Fred Phelps Sr. had been in hospice care with an unknown illness. Church spokesman Steve Drain said Feb. 14 to a Topeka Capital-Journal reporter that Phelps was “healthy" but wouldn't put Phelps on the phone as a church spokeswoman had done in the past.

"He has a couple things going on," Drain said Sunday but he declined to elaborate on what his illnesses were.

"The source that says he's near death is not well informed," Drain said Sunday, which was three days before Phelps died.

On Wednesday, phone lines at the church normally staffed to handle news media queries had voice mails instructing callers to email questions to the church. When called, the phones of several other church members immediately rolled into message mode.

Another member of the family hung up when The Topeka Capital-Journal reporter identified himself.

Megan Phelps, who with her sister, Grace Phelps, left WBC in 2012, tweeted her feelings about the death of her grandfather, whom she called Gramps.

"One way or another, he's at peace," Megan Phelps said. "There's only heaven or peaceful nothingness. That's what I think. (Rest in peace) RIP, Gramps. I love you forever."

"I'm so sorry for the harm he caused, that we all caused.," Megan Phelps said. "But he could be so kind and wonderful. I wish you all could have seen that, too."

"I understand those who don't mourn his loss, but I'm thankful for those who see that 'an eye for an eye' leaves the whole world blind," she said.

Her sister, Grace Phelps, posted a blog to her grandfather on Monday, signing it, "Your Gracie."

"I love you. I miss you," Grace Phelps wrote. "My heart aches to see how you’ve been laid waste in the media by our own family."

"I’m sorry people reflect back the same hate and judgment that WBC delivers," she wrote. "I’m sorry you got trapped into a deluded way of thinking to the point that you were willing to hurt other people and yourself in order to serve a God out of fear."

On Sunday, son Nate Phelps, who fled the church 37 years ago, said Fred Phelps Sr. was excommunicated in August 2013 from the church he founded for advocating more kindness toward its members.On Sunday, Drain refused to discuss whether Phelps had been excommunicated from the church he founded.

"We don't discuss our internal church dealings with anybody," Drain said. "It's only because of his notoriety that you are asking."

Drain said the church doesn't have a specific leader other than Jesus Christ. The church has an eight-member board of elders, all male, who make church decisions.